1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a communication apparatus that supports a so-called name display service in which a caller's telephone number and a caller's name are sent from a switching system to a callee, and in particular to a communication apparatus, an information display method, an incoming call display method, and an incoming call history display method, which are, for instance, suited for a case where an opposite party's name is displayed while avoiding user's confusion, and programs for implementing the methods, and a storage medium in which each program is stored.
2. Description of the Related Art
The name display service is a service in which an opposite party's telephone number and an opposite party's name received by a communication apparatus, such as a telephone set, are displayed on the display section of a communication apparatus, and is a service in which the opposite party's name is displayed even if a user does not register the opposite party's name in the communication apparatus in advance. That is, when viewed from a caller side, this service urges a callee side to answer a telephone call by informing the callee side of a caller's name. On the other hand, when viewed from the callee side, it is possible for the callee to answer the call with peace of mind because the service allows the callee to know the opposite party making the call. This means that the service is a technique of improving convenience on both of the caller side and the callee side.
Also, in the communication apparatus that supports the name display service described above, there is conceived a technique with which, for instance, by storing the received opposite party's telephone number and opposite party's name as incoming call history information, the opposite party's telephone number and the opposite party's name are displayed on the display section of the communication apparatus or are recorded (re-registered) in an address book or the like provided in a memory of the communication apparatus through a user's operation.
Also, there has conventionally been provided a service called a number display service that informs a callee of a caller's telephone number. For instance, a communication apparatus becomes widespread in which a user stores callers' telephone numbers and callers' names related to the telephone numbers in a telephone directory stored in a memory of the communication apparatus. When an incoming call arrives afterward, a caller's telephone number informed by the number display service is compared with the callers' telephone numbers stored in the telephone directory and, in the case where a caller's telephone number matching the informed caller's telephone number is stored in the telephone directory, a corresponding caller's name is stored as incoming call history information.
The conventional techniques described above, however, are beset by the following problems.
Even if a user has registered opposite parties's telephone numbers and opposite parties's names in the telephone directory or the like of a communication apparatus, when an incoming call arrives from one of the registered opposite parties, not the opposite party's name registered by the user but an opposite party's name informed by the switching system is displayed, which may cause user's confusion. For instance, it is assumed that the telephone number at a home is registered at a telecommunications carrier using a father's name “Kenji Yoshida” and the opposite party, to which a call is placed, is informed of this name “Kenji Yoshida” from the switching system. In this case, if a daughter at the home, whose name is “Kazumi Yoshida”, places a call to her friend, her father's name “Kenji Yoshida” is displayed on the friend's telephone set.
Also, in the case where an incoming call arrives from an opposite party that is not registered in the telephone directory of the communication apparatus and the name of the opposite party is registered in the telephone directory afterward, the opposite party's name informed by the switching system is stored as incoming call history information. Consequently, in the case where the incoming call history information is displayed/recorded through a user's operation, not the opposite party's name registered in the telephone directory by the user but the opposite party's name informed by the switching system is displayed/recorded, which also causes user's confusion.
Also, conventionally, displaying at the time of arrival of an incoming call from an opposite party registered in the telephone directory or the like of a communication apparatus and displaying at the time of arrival of an incoming call from an opposite party that is not registered in the telephone directory or the like have been performed using the same method. This leads to inconvenience that if a user does not remember registered contents of the telephone directory, it is impossible for the user to clearly judge whether the incoming call is from an opposite party registered in the telephone directory or is from an opposite party that is not registered in the telephone directory and the user does not know at all. Also, because it is impossible for the user to make the judgment, there is also inconvenience that it is impossible for the user to judge whether opposite party's information related to the incoming call needs to be newly registered in the telephone directory or not.
In addition, when the user confirms an incoming call history by displaying the incoming call history on the display section of the communication apparatus, it is impossible for the user to distinguish whether a displayed opposite party's name is an opposite party's name registered in the telephone directory of the communication apparatus or an opposite party's name received through the name display service. This also causes user's confusion.
For, instance, in the case where an opposite party's name that is the same as or close to an opposite party's name registered in the telephone directory is received through the name number display service (in more detail, in the case where the opposite party's name registered in the telephone directory is “Kazumi Yoshida” and the opposite party's name received through the name number display service is “Kazuko Yoshida”), this causes confusion in which, for instance, a callee guesses wrong that the incoming call is from “Kazumi Yoshida” by glancing the incoming call history and makes a call to “Kazumi Yoshida” for nothing in particular.
In the case where only the opposite party's name is displayed as the incoming call history at the communication apparatus, the confusion described above becomes particularly prominent. On the other hand, in the case where both of the opposite party's name and the opposite party's telephone number are displayed on the communication apparatus, it becomes possible to reduce the confusion, although it is required to specify the opposite party (caller) by checking the opposite party's telephone number as well as the opposite party's name, which means that the visibility is impaired in this case.
Further, in the case of a communication apparatus by which an opposite party's name and an opposite party's telephone number in incoming call history information are separately displayed, it is required for a user to perform an operation to also display the opposite party's telephone number, which means that the user is required to perform a complicated operation.
Further, in the case where a received opposite party's name is displayed as an incoming call history at all times at a communication apparatus, when an incoming call arrives from an opposite party having a telephone number that is the same as a telephone number registered in the telephone directory of the communication apparatus, if the received opposite party's name differs from an opposite party's name registered in the telephone directory, this causes further user's confusion.